


The Sophomore

by HouseEorl



Category: Chasten Buttigieg - Fandom, Chasten Buttigieg/Pete Buttigieg - Fandom, Pete Buttigieg - Fandom
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:47:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22972741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HouseEorl/pseuds/HouseEorl
Summary: Pete and Chasten are young spouses, one of whom is running for President of a large but faltering nation-state, the United States of America.  A premier geo-political power in a world of rapid and shocking challenge and change, the United States is falling behind its peers, turning to protectionism and autocracy as its last best hope to maintain peace and order.Enter Pete, who is bringing a message of kindness, positivity and humility in efforts to reform and preserve this dying republic.Early in the primary season, Pete’s message has earned him enough voters and delegates to make a sustained run for the presidential nomination.  However, the first real setbacks have made their impact, threatening Pete’s path to the presidency.Chasten reflects on his life.  How he grows to meet life’s new challenges is tempered by the wisdom of his small Wisconsin community roots.
Relationships: Chasten Buttigieg/Original Male Character(s), Chasten Buttigieg/Pete Buttigieg
Kudos: 3





	The Sophomore

Prologue Author: HouseEorl  
Chasten sat next to Pete in the South Carolina conference room with the senior campaign team. MSNBC's results of the Nevada caucuses were coming in. It wasn't looking good. The polls did look good to begin with and and they haven't moved despite massive enthusiasm and our "boots on the ground". It was going to be a big loss. Perhaps the beginning of the end. By the tone of the voices of the senior team members in the room, they were sensing it too. The first major setback. Pete was looking at his Samsung. A quick glance showed he was looking over at Fox and Cnn and the internals to see if their numbers were any different or significant. However, Pete quickly put his phone in his pocket and stared out the window into the moonlit night. Chas looked at his eyes and he could tell he was deep in thought and reflection. Silent mediation. Was he thinking the same thing? They weren't going to vote for us. They think we are shouting over them. We are too white for them to hear. We are not queer enough for them to hear. We provide them no agency. They want revenge on the Donald. They want the anti-Donald. We are going to unite all the people of the book against us to take us straight to the camps.   
Of course the quick gut check informed Chas he was the worrier here that Pete was not in fact despairing on these negativities. Pete was the soldier. The doer. The other cheek turner. The Captain Riker fighting Locutus and the collective with brilliantly unorthodox strategy. Or King Elessar, healing the broken people of Gondor. One of those. Pete would know. Pete had the vivid imagination married to the Catholic work ethic. Oh life's surprises at that thought! Chas knew they were soldiering on soon without much second thought. A second glace and he locked eyes with Pete for a second and he could tell Pete saw all his doubts for a second. His spouse made a kind look of affectionate empathy and then looked away and out the window again. The moonlight indicated that snow was starting to blow in.

The Sophomore  
April 4th, 2009

Chasten Glezman is in the Governor’s Hall dormitory group bathroom. Chas adjusts the bowtie on his rental tuxedo. Tonight is the Saturday night Viennese Ball dance at Davies Student Center and Chas was putting on his tux at his dorm then heading to another dorm, Towers Hall, to meet a friend group that would walk down to the ball and hang out there together.

Chas is a sophomore undergrad at University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. UWEC is a small, public, four-year university of 10,000 students in a small town of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, population 60,000. As the second semester winds down, (it is now April — one month, then finals, to go), Chas reflects how different this year was from freshman year. For one he got into all his classes (he admitted late last year and classes were full so he had to take unneeded electives to get a full 15 credits a semester). For two, he voted for the first time last year and astonishingly his candidate for the presidency of the United States, Barack Obama, won and made it into sworn office without being assassinated. Chas thought that assassination was a very real probability. Obama was black (well, half-African American) and leaders of that ethnic group in the past, such as MLK Jr and Malcolm X, have been murdered when they go too far and unknowingly generate too much racial animosity. Obama was a young man, and Chas had read Audacity of Hope and was inspired by a message of positivity, but also had the thought in the back of his mind that what he was reading was too good to be true. A neighbor (Illinois US Senator) who lived in Indonesia as a young man? Who seemed wise as well as intelligent? Who was black? It’s still almost unbelievable.

While Chas was fully busy with studies his first semester of his sophomore year, he was not completely un-distracted by the excitement of the election. He was surprised that the campus student body seemed to favor Obama, even though he knew this was a conservative than most town and student body (compared to Madison and Milwaukee). One day Chas was on the forum and one of the church preachers / missionaries that come to campus to proselytize on occasion was shouting at the top of his lungs about the faith, drawing a crowd. The missionary was taking random shouted questions from the undergrad students. One of them was “Is John McCain going to hell for divorcing his wife?” So someone thought it was smart to turn this to politics or current events. Chas thought it was a prideful question that may doom Obama’s chances, or that John McCain may come back after Obama is out of office for political revenge for being beaten in the election, and vengeance would be served. However, Chas also thought that that student is young like him and impassioned by the election and probably does not know any better. 

Chas grew up under the presidency of George W Bush. Dad supported and voted for Bush twice but Dad would also sometimes ask him how he felt about things such as 9/11 and Iraq. “I don’t understand most of it” teenage Chas would tell Dad, in complete a sober honesty. Dad would try to explain when he asked questions; high school teachers would also try to explain when Chas asked questions. He always got answers that didn’t seem to completely satisfy. That’s probably what life is going to be like thought Chas.

Chas was also socially reserved. Chas was a gay man. He was physically attracted to other men in the way that men are attracted to mate with women. Being gay and very different from everyone was so far very unpleasant. While he would never tell others, they would know from his mannerisms and bully or beat him up accordingly. Chas developed a system to avoid them or neutralize escalating social tensions after much harsh experience. Talk his way out of a fight if possible. However, at one or two points of his most recent fights he did fight back and dealt some damage. It was a surprising way of realizing how much he is indeed growing from a kid into a man. Still, he was in undergraduate college now and felt like his tougher than normal life would remain so. His close acquaintances from home became quite devil-may-care about the world in the last two years, cynical almost, in a way that Chas felt he could not empathize with. Either they were growing up or he was not growing he thought about himself many times.

Tonight, he would meet up with some cheerful people in Towers and go down to this formal event, the Viennese Ball, and have a good time. De-stress for a change and then starting tomorrow, Sunday, hit the studies hard again as usual. Chas left his dorm, Governor’s Hall, and walked over a short ways to Towers Hall. Two of the more friendlier of their group, Mike and his girlfriend Carrie were in the lobby looking quite excellent in their formal cloths. Mike was a theatre major like himself and Carrie was a music major. The music department is in the same building as the theatre department so Chas met these two fairly early in his college career. 

“Chas, looking good my man” said Mike

“Thanks, Mike. Although now that I have a rental I kind of want to buy a real tuxedo”.

“Me too but they are too expensive for us poor college students” retorted Mike.

“My dress is from high school” said Carrie. “But I guess I am lucky that I own it. Are you going to dance tonight, Chas?”

“I don’t have a date”, said Chas, stating the quite obvious.

“I meant are you going to do some dancing with me”, clarified Carrie. Carrie knew he was gay, and they weren’t that acquainted to know if she was somewhat offering sympathy. But as far as he knew she was a cheerful personality and that she cared that he had some fun tonight. 

“Of course” Chas said with a beaming smile.

“Great” said Carrie. “It’s no fun dancing with just one person in my opinion”.


End file.
